Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates

"Enjoyable, but much too short."

Introduction

Crystal Chronicles is not the first Final Fantasy game to grace the DS, but like most of Square Enix's titles, it didn't come without its fair share of hype and excitement. Anticipated as one of the handheld releases of the year, DS players have been a given a fun addition to the system, but unfortunately not one that will stay in the average gamer's console for long. There was certainly potential here to fulfill the expectations, but the game's ease, along with a disappointingly insufficient lifespan let down the positive gameplay and leave us wondering what might have been.

Graphics

Some handheld gamers simplify the DS v PSP war as a battle between gameplay and graphics respectively. Indeed, the PSP's capabilities see a lot of games look better than those sported by its opponent in the handheld market, but Crystal Chonicles doesn't completely fall behind on this front. The graphics are presented in a very cute and friendly way. They aren't exactly pushing the boundaries of the DS but they do their job exactly, colourfully appealing to the eye throughout playthrough. An RPG doesn't always require breathtaking visuals, and these aren't particularly, but there is a charm about them and they actually suit the overall mood of the game and characters very well. Effects are neat, areas are set out well and people are full of life. However, battles with many enemies at once often results in a touch of slow-down, and this can be frustrating in the heat of frantic combat. Despite this, it's a strong aspect of the title.

8/10

Story

Though the characters often interact in a childish manner (well, they are meant to be young), it's still a reasonably deep story, with the main protagonist twins Yuri and Chelinka driven by emotion throughout. The competitive siblings endure a traumatic childhood and vow to get stronger so that they can bring justice on the evildoers in the world. As in every Final Fantasy game, you'll end up in several locations, such as snowy peaks, wild forests and rich cities. However, the world map is hardly vast - there is not much exploring to be done and there is not an abundance of areas to visit. You'll typically meet many people on your travels, friend and foe. Your party eventually ends up as a quartet, consisting of two childhood friends of the twins (Chelinka, the female twin, is not playable) and a mysterious woodland character. They work together, bound by friendship and hope, to save the world from the despicable wizard-man-thing who seeks to shroud the land in darkness, or something. Sound familiar? Yeah, OK, the format is a little like...err...every RPG game, but this isn't too troublesome because the character development is there, and the characters themselves are very likable and rarely annoying. As you play through, you learn of the world's past, as well as the twins' parents and their backstory. It ends up being pretty interesting, engaging and deep. You'll find yourself eager to discover how it ends up, and what the fate of your party is. The story is strong, and certainly shines as a positive point.

8/10

Sound

I'm a sucker for the Final Fantasy soundtracks. This game doesn't just have good music and sound effects, but as is becoming more and more frequent in handheld games, it has some nice voice-overs too. Some voice-acting in games leaves a lot to be desired, but I did like it in Crystal Chronicles. It's only the main plot scenes that have them so they don't get overused or boring, and the lines are delivered with conviction and - when required - emotion. The music itself is also pretty excellent. Some of the tunes add a dramatic element to things, others insert a friendly atmosphere, and the boss music is very apt. With a handheld game, it is perhaps more common than with the main consoles to be tempted to turn the volume down, save a bit of battery and load up your mp3 player. I don't foresee it being the case here because there's some excellent stuff all round. Definitely worth listening during gameplay.

9/10

Gameplay

Right then, the game seems to be doing well so far but it must be let down somewhere for it to only be 7/10 overall. I wouldn't say the gameplay lets it down in the sense that it isn't a fun game - it's actually very fun. Just the fact that it has the odd flaw, and the game simply doesn't last long enough and isn't much of a challenge for a seasoned gamer (or any gamer, really). The battle system has quite a lot of depth and features, but for the subtleties it contains, you probably won't actually use them very much. Battles are real time with a bit of a hack'n'slash feel to it. It's very fun to charge in and smash your enemies to pieces in a number of different ways - you can attack with combos from standing next to them, jumping on top of them or even hanging from under them in the case of flying foes. You control one character at a time and then the rest of your characters are dealt with by rather poor AI. The game utilises the touch screen a lot, with items, magic and character-changes all being addressed by it, and this is where I express my first main gripe with the game. Battles are quite fast-paced, and if you are to realise your party's attacking potential, you're going to need to change characters a lot, as well as use a lot of different skills and magic attacks. However, this can be a great inconvenience if you don't possess a thumb strap. You can forget using the stylus much in battle because of the speed (as you constantly need to use both hands in order to move and attack), and this leads to potentially damaging the screen and with your thumb it's easy to be inaccurate with your touch. This results in awkwardness at critical moments. The way the game compensates for this, whether wittingly or not, is the ease of the battles in general. Yuri, the main character, and his quick sword attacks, always has enough in his locker to defeat an enemy. With his speed, you can always dodge attacks and get a lot of hits in before you take one yourself. Your companions, when you aren't controlling them, will toss in the odd attack but they aren't really much help. A 'gambit' system such as in FFXII would be most welcome here to stop the random and often useless nature of the AI-controlled characters.

The magic and item system is quite simplistic. You pick up six types of magicite (eg, Fire, Cure, Ice) and initially you can store up to 10 of each (but you can buy or pick up extra 'pockets' so you can add to your stash). Using magic is easy enough. You select the magicite of your choice on the touch screen and then use the D-Pad to target where you want it to be cast. In order to use more powerful magic (eg, Fire to Fira), you need to target the same place with different characters before casting. This can be too inconvenient to use in battle most of the time, even though it's pretty cool and innovative. With items, you only really have potions and ethers to restore your health and AP. Health is, as usual, measured in hit points (HP) and though magic has no measure other than how many are in your inventory, AP is present for you to use special ability attacks, more of which become available as you level higher.

You find many materials on your travels, and you can use these to forge new improved weapons in the blacksmith. They are usually just the same weapons you can buy but for cheaper. It's a little shallow in that sense but part of its fun is the simplicity of it - sometimes when features go into too much depth they end up being too much hassle and therefore neglected (like the Gummi Ship thing in Kingdom Hearts - rubbish). You can also equip accessories and armour, as you'd expect in an RPG.

Now, it all seems pretty good, but here's the dampener on it - if you're decent at RPG's, the single-player will probably last you about 8 hours, maybe less. There aren't many places to go, and the world map isn't really a world map - it's more of a travel menu, a little like the much-criticised one in FFX. You just select where to go and you automatically travel there. Even a small world map would have been better than this. Not only would it have added time to the lifespan and increased the interactiveness, but it would have cut down on how lifeless and automated the travelling is. Now, it's not all doom and gloom, because there is a multiplayer mode. I haven't played it myself because I have no friends. Err...I mean, no friends who have a DS, but I understand you can play it co-operatively which might be a bit of fun. You might be wondering why the lack of friends thing is relevant, as it says Wi-Fi on the game box. No - it's a con. The only Wi-Fi element is trading some items back on forth, and this is rubbish because you don't need them anyway, the game is easy enough as it is and you can get most items anywhere.

For all the fun you have during the game, there just isn't a lifespan to back it up. I felt slightly teased by Enix, because the gameplay engine could easily provide a starting point for a superb game, but a few tweaks are needed as well as many more hours.

7/10

Replay Value

There'll obviously be more if you've got friends to test the multiplayer with, but as far as single player goes, there's not a great deal unless you fancy completing the game a few more times on slightly harder difficulty modes. It does make the game better, but they should have made the added difficulty an option from the start, as you're unlikely to go and revisit a game exactly the same as the one you've just completed for the sake of some tougher enemies. Hardcore RPG fans could have enjoyed it a lot more by having tougher modes there initially but the best point about it is that once completed, you've got the option then in subsequent playthroughs. I don't think it's the sort of game you'll immediately want to pick up again though (your hand is probably cramped with the awkward battle controls!).

6/10

Graphics - 8/10
Story - 8/10
Sound - 9/10
Gameplay - 7/10
Replay Value - 6/10

Overall (NOT AN AVERAGE) - 7/10

Good graphics, good sound, a nice story and an enjoyable gameplay engine. It's begging for more than 8 hours of play but it doesn't deliver in the most critical area. To be honest, if you've got a couple of days on your hands you can lend or rent the game and complete it easily enough so you can save the money. Don't get me wrong, this is a very good game and worthy of a look for any Final Fantasy and even RPG fan. But only while it lasts.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 05/05/08

Game Release: Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates (EU, 03/21/08)